Biden's Legacy: Rescuing America From COVID, Then Getting Replaced By A Criminal

In the end, looking, speaking and walking like an old man were too much for voters to accept in a president.

WASHINGTON — In the end, facing a choice between a convicted criminal and someone who looked, walked and talked like an old man, Americans preferred the criminal.

In his single term in the White House, Joe Biden led the country out of a deadly pandemic, pushed through a $1 trillion boost to road and bridge construction, secured massive new investments into American semiconductor manufacturing and clean energy infrastructure and pulled together an international coalition to support Ukraine after its invasion by Russia.

None of it mattered.

“His age became an issue the second people realized he was running again,” said Sarah Longwell, a Republican consultant who has conducted hundreds of focus groups of Republican, Democratic and independent voters in recent years. “They couldn’t believe it, based on how he seemed.”

“It baked in quickly, and it seemed to underpin everything else,” said Steve Schale, a Democratic consultant who ran a pro-Biden super PAC in 2020 and 2024. “Even in focus groups, folks would sometimes acknowledge accomplishments, then go back to age.”